One of these people is breaking the rules. Can you tell which one?

No Photos, Please! is a social stealth game in the works from The Basement Studios that has passed Greenlight on Steam, and after playing a few rounds of it with my little sister, I’ve come to the conclusion that it has a lot of potential. Two players share a screen with an isometric view of a museum and race to figure out which of the many 8-bit characters they are controlling. After this, the photographer must phase through each exhibit to take a picture of it, (no, I don’t get how that works either) and the security guard must get within range of the photographer and apprehend him. Anyone who’s played the Assassin’s Creed multi-player will feel right at home with this game. You spend most of your time not knowing which of the many avatars in the room are hunting you or breaking the rules, you have class-specific abilities to combat your opponent, and you have to trick your friend, sister, or mortal enemy into believing that you are just another brainless, computer-controlled drone. I really like the concept. The problem is that the photographer is overpowered.

When playing as the security guard, I won about half the time. When playing as the photographer, I never lost. That includes the time I was blindly fumbling about because I never actually figured out which character I was. There are two main things that contribute to this. One, as the photographer, you don’t really need to know who the other person is. If you act like an NPC, your anti-security abilities will delay the security guard long enough to get all the pictures. As the security guard, you need to figure out which avatar is yours, which one is your opponent’s, and then you need to get close to your opponent without giving away that you are more than another NPC enjoying a day at the museum. The other thing that tilts the game in the photographer’s favour is the time limit. When the photographer takes the first picture, a two-minute timer is started. If the security guard doesn’t find and apprehend the photographer before the timer goes off, the photographer wins. In fact, I found that the easiest way to win as the photographer was to take one picture and run out the clock.

The good thing is that this is Sparta! beta. No Photos, Please! is still in development, and if the classes are balanced, it will be a great game that I’ll have no problem recommending. No Photos, Please! is scheduled for release later this year. For more information or to watch some gameplay videos, check out its Steam page.

© 2014, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.

Folks who regularly follow the indie market likely already know about the Humble Indie Bundle or the regular Indie Royale bundles. Well there’s a new horse in that race in the form of the Bundle In A Box – Adventure Bundle.

As the title suggests, this particular bundle features high-quality adventure games including the debut of The Sea Will Claim Everything by developer Jonas Kyratzes. There are six more titles in the pack including:

• Gemini Rue
• Metal Dead
• The Shivah
• Ben There, Dan That!
• Time Gentlemen, Please!
• 1893: A World’s Fair Mystery which is a text-based adventure game available for download for the first time via this bundle.

 All downloads will be DRM-free, and the majority are also available via Steam and Desura. As with most indie bundles, the payment model is a pay-what-you-want system, and the more you pay, the more that keeps the bundle cost down. Metal Dead and The Shivah are only available to consumers who pay more than the average price.

As with a number of indie bundles, games aren’t the only packaged content. The bonuses this time around include the Gemini Rue soundtrack and the Metal Dead Making Of booklet that is available exclusively through this bundle. The former is already available and the latter will unlock when certain sales milestones are hit.

There are good works associated with this bundle. Sales from the Adventure Bundle will go towards supporting The Hellenic Centre for Mental Health and Treatment of Child and Family. The charity work doesn’t stop there as this bundle also marks the launch of the Indie Dev Grant aimed at helping out smaller indie developers. It’s great to see that they’re covering both a charitable organization and also helping give back to fellow developers like themselves.

There are only a few days left in the sale, so go check it out now. There are some great games and bonuses at great prices (currently around $1) and it’s also for a pair of good causes.

© 2012 – 2013, The Indie Mine. All rights reserved.